Tokyo adventure: day one

Last weekend we went back to Tokyo for the first time since our whirlwind arrival. The occasion was to meet up with our pals Caroline, who was visiting from New Zealand, and Josephine, who has been on the JET programme for a couple of years, and who lives in Nagoya. Also, of course, we wanted to explore some of the big city, do some shopping, see some sights, and go to Disneyland. But before all that...

First up, we met our friends (along with our tour guide, Tokyo resident Ellie, who is another from the Christchurch crew, although a new aquaintance for us) for sushi at the restaurant that (supposedly) inspired that bit in Kill Bill.


Sadly it was too full for us to sit in the open area that is famous from the movie, and we were instead seated upstairs in a somewhat less hectic/interesting dining area. Norah Jones was playing as background music, which was pretty whack, but the food was delicious.


Then we were off to a super cool club called Super Deluxe. They were supposed to be having a Lady Gaga night, with people dressing up as said pop diva, which we found intriguing, so we set off to find it.


Instead it turned out be... um, well, sort of a design presentation, with video and images by a group (?) of artists/directors. Not sure, really, but they did show some amazing pictures of cat sushi.


Then a bunch of them danced a quite impressive boyband-style routine. I don't know why.


And I discovered my first interesting beer since I came to Japan: Tokyo Ale. It's a malty brew which I can sum up in just a few words: yay, it's not a lager!


Oh, and actually there were quite a few women dressed as Lady Gaga.

autumnal tumble

Autumn has arrived and taken our chilly little breaths away.
We took a saunter up Izumi Gatake, our local skifield yet to be snowed upon this season, to admire things and search for pre-hibernation bears.

It's my birthday!

Birthday bunting and Pockyhog cake by Mirabel. Thanks, love!

Pizza of Doom

The other night we were feeling a bit peckish and too tired to cook, and somehow we decided that getting a pizza delivered was a great idea. So we hopped on the Domino's website to try and figure out what to attempt to order, when up popped a promotional video for the "Cheese Fantasy" Quattro, an artery-clogging behemoth of a pizza, created by splicing the unholy essences of four pizzas into one grease-heavy deep-dish monstrosity.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "Cheese Fantasy":


One quarter bacon and tomato, one quarter chicken and artichoke, one quarter lobster and americaine sauce, and one quarter whipped cream and berries. One-hundred percent evil. We absolutely could not pass up the opportunity to purchase a pizza so ridiculous. Think of the blog post we could write, we said to ourselves.


But oh God, the grease. See how it pools ominously under the first lifted slice. Watch as it coats the fingertips with a thin, shiny film. There is so much cheese on this thing it might as well be German house music. Here's the kicker, though:


It comes with maple syrup. The Japanese do a lot of really good food, but boy do they know how to screw up a pizza. We felt ill.

I'm quite proud of the fact that I actually ordered this over the phone, though. Think about it for a second, and imagine trying to order a pizza in a language you barely speak, getting a delivery to an address you can't remember most of the time, and having the guy on the other end ask you things. It wasn't easy, but I can check that off the list. Most importantly, however, following this episode, we never have to eat the Cheese Fantasy Quattro ever again.

a turn about the garden

We planted a garden outside our window. Thyme, basil, sage, flat-leaf parsley and marjoram -- tasting delicious.

Pansies and snap-dragons -- looking delicious.

Gangsta grills

The conbini (convenience store) is a constant source of wonder and amusement. Here I have discovered my own eponymous hotdog. It's salsa and double cheese. Word.


We also found Lil' Jon's chocolate bar of choice. YEAH!

Halloween hijinks

muumin

A couple of weekends ago Gareth and I went on a bike ride to nearby Izumi Park Town to investigate the ubiquitous outlet mall, and with the small hope of discovering a Finnish Cafe we had seen advertised on television.

Oh so happy!

Not only did we find the cafe, but we stumbled upon a small (yet mighty) Moomin display!

There was a large variety of moomin wares for sale, including imported Finnish biscuit cutters, cake tin and Hattifattener tongs (now all safely in my possession). Numerous small and large model moomins everywhere -- and a delightful moominhouse with hiding creatures. Look how delighted Gareth is.

There were moomin biscuits, lollies and even sugar cubes. sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet

And as the Japanese never miss a photo opportunity -- a large painted backdrop with 3D Snufkin, Moomin and My. Chiizu!

Ready go, let's go Sendai!

We went and checked out a bit of J-soccer on Sunday. Our local side Vegalta Sendai's home stadium is only 10 minutes' walk from our place, and the team is well known for having super-supportive fans. Vegalta were playing Consadole Sapporo, from Hokkaido, and after a Sapporo team beat Sendai's baseball team, the Rakuten Golden Eagles, the night before, the crowd were hungry for a little payback.


In fact, the crowd were very nearly the best thing about the experience. The wall of yellow-shirted fans sang, chanted, waved giant flags and whirled their scarves around non-stop for 90 minutes, singing altered versions of "Take Me Home, Country Roads", "Blitzkrieg Bop", "I Was Made For Loving You" and "We're Not Gonna Take It", complete with chroeographed hand actions. Brilliant.

Vegalta won 1-0 thanks to a nice touch from super substitute Yakahara Takayuki, although both teams blew several great opportunities to score. Still, lots of chances means an exciting game, and we won, so we were pretty happy.

Highlights are on Youtube! (Is there nothing the internet can't do?)



Vegalta are sitting in second place on the J-League second division table, with the top three teams to be promoted to div one automatically at the end of the season (with only four games still to play). With West Ham currently wallowing in the depths of the English Premiership table, at least I'm supporting one successful team...

Fishsticks

Another festival, another tasty creature barbecued on a stick. This time, a fish, whole!


Delicious! (Did not eat the face.)

This was at the Miyagi Produce Festival, which was a festival in name but basically just a glorified farmers' market. We got some sweet deals on a few vegetables, which are generally pretty expensive in the supermarket, so it was worthwhile. The festival also promised a dairy section, which was temporarily exciting, however the only cheeses on offer were the same processed slices you get at the supermarket, and camembert. For some reason camembert is really popular in Japan while other cheeses are shunned completely. Weird, right?